Embodiments described herein relate generally to virtualized networking, and, in particular, to a network device configured to route data between virtual resources logically defined at a host device.
A host device (e.g., a physical server) associated with a data center network can be configured to host multiple virtual resources (e.g., guest operating systems, virtual machines (VMs)). The virtual resources can be configured to share a single or multiple network links (e.g., physical network links) connecting the host device to networked portions of the data center network. Known host devices often each include a local virtual switch module (also can be referred to as an embedded virtual switch or as a virtual bridge) configured to route data originating from one or more of the virtual resources to another of the virtual resources within the host device. Network devices (e.g., external switches, gateway devices) associated with the data center network but external to the host device may not have information on and/or control over the routing between virtual resources within the host device. Host devices with this type of closed virtualized routing environment may not be configured to scalably integrate with the data center network in a desirable fashion and/or may not provide desirable routing flexibility. In addition, the processing efficiency of known host devices can be undesirably affected by processing overhead related to virtual switch management.
Thus, a need exists for methods and apparatus for a network device, which is external to a host device, configured to route (or trigger routing of) data between virtual resources logically defined at the host device.